Awsome, I am an updating machine! 3 chapters posted in 20 minutes! Nice. Clears throat Here are some more characters:

Kojima: Safako (Her hieght is actually very literal)

Hasagawa: My little buddy, Angie (Her hieght is 2)

Emi: Hooker Jay! Or Jay Jay as I callher (her eyes aren't exaggerated either. That is a real thing, creepy, but real)

Asuka (Endoh's sister): Eclipse'sChick's sister

Tsubaki: My 5 year-old cousin, Thalia. (I'm hoping to add her little sister, Aurora, she's 5 months or so, in later chapters)

See?Cool, huh? Disclaimer: I do not Avatar: The LAst Air Bender, or any of it's characters, but I do own the kids of the woods.

Chapter 8: A Burned Past

'Wha?' Ayumi thought. She made her way closer, listening to conversations, but one caught her ear the most.

"That idiot!" Watari yelled. Endoh was crying her eyes out, and Emi held her, covering her own tears. Kojima and Hasagawa were clinging on to each other, crying hard. Watari was yelling at the corpse as her held back her own tears. Tsubaki was holing her hands over her mouth as tears flowed from her eyes. "I told her this would happen!" Endoh shrieked, choking on tears.

"That moron! That, that imbecile! She, she knew that she should have told us!"

"I'm sorry!" Tsubaki yelled, "She told me not to tell!" If Ayumi was ever confused, and she was most of the time, this beat them all. She stood behind her friends. Even Masahiro and Oguri were gathered around the body. Zuko, was no where to be found, but it didn't phase her. What did phase her was her friend's reaction to the body. "That bitch," Ayumi heard Nakashima yell. Even she was trying to hold back tears. "She did this to get out of fighting me. What the hell, Ayumi!" She yelled at the body.

Ayumi looked up. "Hey!" She yelled at Nakashima, "What the hell are you talking about?" Everyone looked down at Ayumi, who was no examining the crispy corpse. "Ayumi!" All of her friends cheered as they hugged her all at once. Watari smacked her across the face, and as Ayumi turned towards her, hand on the stinging cheek, Watari explained her action. "What the hell, Ayumi! You go and leave with no look out, then send back Tsubaki with a friggin' look of terror on her face! Then the body is found, you gave us a heart attack!"

"Oh, about the leaving thing, yeah. I'm sorry, but you guys were so asleep, I thought a quick run would be okay. As for Tsubaki, she was scared, because the guy I robbed caught me, but it was all right. He was nice; I gave him his money back for catching me." Watari hit her, again, then gave her another hug.

Everyone was now very confused. If Ayumi was here, who was the body? Ayumi looked over the body, and looked at the rest of the kids. "If you had any skill, or common sense for that matter, you could have found out on your own that this body is male." She showed that the shape of the body was obviously a man from the lack of curves. She continued that search, but she couldn't place the body, until Endoh showed Ayumi what had been around the corpse's neck that had led them to think it was she.

"Endoh!" Ayumi exclaimed as she took the object. It was a necklace that was the same as Ayumi's, a half of a Ying yang. The only difference was that Ayumi's was the black side, and the other one was the white side. She commanded everyone to go back to his or her homes. It was late, and she would tell them the out come of the autopsy in the morning, but already knew who it was.

When everyone was gone, Ayumi went down to the river. She sat on the shore, and she cried into her arms, still holding onto the white side of the necklace. She thought she was alone, more alone now than ever. Her grip tightened on the string of the necklace, and her crying was harder. She never cried. She wanted to at times, but never after a fight, or a loss, or hen someone made fun or her, not even when she was really scared. What did make her want to cry was death. She held back her tears in the woods, thinking Iroh would kill her. The last time Ayumi ever cried was when her family was killed by the fire nation. From then on, she knew nothing could ever be as awful, but she was wrong.

"Ayumi?" A voice called to her. She looked behind her to see where Zuko stood. She wiped her tears away, put on a serious face, and tried her best not to make eye contact with him. "Ayumi, I thought you were…"

"I'M NOT DEAD!" She yelled.

He took a step back and told her, "All right, I leave then." He began to walk away, and Ayumi began to cry again. He stopped, and looked over his shoulder at the weeping girl. He sighed an angry sigh as his uncle's traits were taking over him, again; he had to know what was wrong with her. He turned around and sat next to her, his eye catching a glimpse of the necklace in her hands. "Do you know who it was?" He asked. He saw her nod, her head still in her arms.

She looked at him, not caring if he saw the tears stream down her face. Zuko looked back into her eyes. The tears made her look so young, so innocent. He remembered back to when he had first met her. How deceiving she was. She wasn't deceiving now; she was just vulnerable. She realized what she was doing, and turned away. "Who was it?" Zuko asked. He had a feeling that it was an old friend of hers, but he thought may be it would make her feel better to tell him. She rubbed her eyes, and asked him in a aggravated tone, "What do you care? I thought all you wanted was your money."

This was true, but at the moment, Zuko's uncle's traits wanted to know what was wrong. "Normally, that would be right, but I- I want to, you know, help."

Ayumi looked back at him, and relaxed a bit. She looked out to the water, then at the necklace, "This necklace, it was made by my mother, when I was born. She gave me the dark side, because I looked so much like my father. Do you know why I steal?"

Zuko nodded and said, "To support the children."

Ayumi looked at him and explained, "That, and because it reminds me of my father. Everyone thinks I'm good, but my father was the best. He stole from a fire noble man once. He split the money among the people of the town, well as a thief. He was known as the Blue Moon Bandit. It's a corny name, I know, but he was named that because he used water bending, and he didn't rob as much as I do, he would go thieving once in a while. You see, my mother thought he was a dark and mysterious person, because no one knew who he truly was. She thought I might grow up to be the same. I guess I proved her right, huh?"

Zuko nodded, with a slight smile.

"The other half of the necklace was giving to somebody else. It was given to…" She trailed off and once again tightened the grip of the string. Zuko put his hand on her shoulder. She brushed it off, and continued, "It was given to my older brother. He was ten years older than I was, because his father, wasn't my father. His father was a quiet, kind, and nice musician. He played instruments, and he sang. He was always optimistic, but I never got to meet him.

"The whole reason my mother remarried was because a fire nation soldier killed her first husband. She needed someone to help her care for my brother. When she met my father, he was eight. I was born two years later. My mother believed, that my father, and my brother's father were two halves of a whole, and she believed my brother and I would be the same. That's what the necklace symbolized.

"Three years later, my brother left us to join the army. He wanted to avenge his father's death. My parents and I thought he had died in war, because a year after he went, we never heard from him again. That year, fire nation soldiers invaded our village. They killed my parents, no. They didn't kill them, they tortured them, right in front of my eyes." Zuko looked at her, shocked. What else could he say? She lost her whole family, and her brother's father to the fire nation, it was no wonder she hated them so much.

"I saw them rape and murder my mother, from whom I got my brown hair," she said as she took down her hair. It was a beautiful chestnut brown, with lighter brown streaks from the light of the sunrise. "I saw them slowly break every bone in my father's body, ending with his neck. They then remove his eyes, his caring blue eyes, the blue eyes that we shared." She looked up at Zuko, her blue eyes looking bluer than ever. "Now," she began to choke on her tears that were resurfacing; "now, 16 years later, I know that my brother was alive. He was probably looking for me, but he, too, was murdered by a fire bender." She curled back up, and began to cry into her arms, again.

Zuko didn't know what to do, but before he could think of something, his arm had already put itself around her shoulders. She didn't look up at him, and he didn't want him to. If she knew, if she knew about him, she would kill him. She wouldn't hesitate; she would kill him right there on the spot. They didn't move. Zuko kept his arm around her, and she cried. She cried for an hour and for an hour the only thing Zuko could hear were her cries, and a little voice telling him, "The body is a sign. They will attack."

Who will attack, and when? Sad chapter, I know, I'm sorry, but in my stories, for every sad part, there is a happy ending! R&R!

I forgot to add a person, or two:

Hara: My friend Charles (he really does look like he popped out of the wizard of Oz)

Kazuma: Ray (He thinks I'm just the cutest little thing, and for a senior, he is SQUEAKY!)